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TO 


WM. E. CHANNING, D. D. 

IN REPLY TO ONE ADDRESSED TO HIM 

BY R. R. MADDEN, 

ON THE 

ABUSE OF THE FLAG OF THE UNITED STATES 


ISLAND OF CUBA, 

FOR PROMOTING THE SLAVE TRADE. 


BY A CALM OBSERVER. 


4 * 


PUBLISHED BY WILLIAM D. TICKNOR, 

Corner of Washington and School Streets. 


1840. 























A 


LETTER 


TO 

W M . E. CHANNING, D.D. 

IN REPLY TO ONE ADDRESSED TO HIM 


BY R. R. MADDEN, 


ON THE 


ABUSE OF THE FLAG OF THE UNITED STATES 


ISLAND OF CUBA, 

FOR PROMOTING THE SLAVE TRADE. 


BY A CALM OBSERVER. 

I * '' ' f )Cj O* 

• / St 


£ PUBLISHED BY WILLIAM D. TICKNOR, 

Corner of Washington and School Streets. 


1840 . 







PRINTED 



BY I . R. BUTTS. 


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LETTER 


Havana, January, 1840 . 

Sir, 

A pamphlet published at Boston, by a Dr. R. R. Madden, 
has recently been put into my hands. It is called “ A Letter 
on the subject of the abuse of the Flag of the United States, 
in'the Island of Cuba, and the advantage taken of its protec¬ 
tion in promoting the Slave Trade and being addressed to you, 
it certainly will engage public attention, although it is not what 
it professes to be, but really a malignant attack on N. P. Trist, 
American Consul at Havana ; probably intended rather to gratify 
the bitterness and bad feeling of its author against that gentle¬ 
man, than to further the interests of humanity. Still Dr. Mad¬ 
den, seeming to think that it may call forth some remarks from 
you ; and I being convinced that nothing would induce you to 
engage in a personal contest, or write in an unchristian spirit; I 
do hope, that the important subject of which the Dr. affects to 
treat, will be brought by you before the people of the United 
States ; and that you, whom an eminent British Philanthropist 
has designated “ the most eloquent writer of America',” will 
employ your mighty pen to enlist the feelings of all our fellow 
citizens against a Trade, in which, I am sorry to confess, some 
of them are still engaged, though not either in the number, or 
to the extent, that Dr. Madden pretends. 

In doing so, you will not, I am satisfied, enter upon the ques¬ 
tion on the ex-parte evidence of Dr. Madden, who is evidently 
either a zealot or a hypocrite. I would fain believe him the 
former, but he is more likely both ; for it is a fact, that these 
characters are often blended. You will on the contrary draw 
materials from purer sources, and be satisfied of the truth of 
your premises before you proceed to inferences. 

To assist you in this object, I would take leave to pass in re¬ 
view the statements which Dr. Madden has made ; and I would 
add some facts relative to the Slave Trade, which, as a quiet 
observer, long sojourning in this Island, 1 have been able to 
collect. 



4 


Before I proceed, it is however necessary, as many of the 
Doctor’s statements rest on his own assertion alone, to form an 
opinion as to the value which ought to attach to his testimony. 

He may be dishonest, and have intentionally asserted un¬ 
truths, but I trust this is not the case ; — or he may be honest, 
and yet, either from prejudice or passion, selfishness, conceit, or 
from a mind habitually inexact, distorted and illogical, he may 
have seen things in a false light, and in consequence uninten¬ 
tionally maintained what is false, or represented what is true, 
under a false coloring. And before we attach entire credence 
to what Dr. Madden says, it is requisite to ascertain whether 
he is in either of these categories, or whether he is a man whose 
intentions and judgment are equally good, and who, therefore, 
may be implicitly relied on. 

I shall not speak of what has come to my knowledge of Dr. 
Madden’s conduct during his residence in this country, though 
many of its traits would sufficiently characterize him. It is 
from his published works, that I shall take leave to depict the 
man, and these fortunately afford me ample means of doing so. 

Dr. Madden is the author of a novel called “ The Mussul¬ 
man,” or “ Travels in the East.” 

An Essays on “ The Infirmities of Genius.” 

“ Twelve months in the West Indies,” and of “ Breathings 
of Prayer, in many Lands.” 

The first of these works I have never seen ; — of the second, 
the Edinburgh Reviewers, no mean authorities, say (in their 50th 
volume, page 442,) “ These letters look like the materials that 
Ariosto might have collected for a rambling extravaganza, con¬ 
verted into authentic prose and without any thing like pique 
against Dr. Madden, whom I hardly know, I cannot help ob¬ 
serving, that this seems to me a pretty accurate description of 
his letter to you ; and when they add, that Dr. Madden “ has 
not the art of gaining the confidence of his readers,” and “ our 
observations will justify our scepticism in him,” 1 cannot help 
feeling as if these words were put into my mouth. But critics, 
you know, Sir, are a cynical set. They take offence easily ; and 
it is possible, that, disgusted with Dr. Madden, “ a writer who 
had not yet won his first spurs,” for sneering at Herodotus, an 
historian whom he can neither appreciate nor even read, and at 
Dr. Edward Daniel Clarke, the most learned traveller of our 
times, as well as at many others infinitely his superiors in 
knowledge and observation, these gentry of the Buff and Blue 
may have dealt harshly with him ; and though their rivals of 
the Quarterly were yet more severe, (see No. 82—page 441,) 
yet 1 think it is hardly fair that we should class Dr. Madden, as 


5 


they do, without letting him speak for himself. This he shall ; 
and as on a moderate computation he uses the pronoun “ 1 ” six 
thousand times in his above-mentioned “ Travels in the East,” 
we shall doubtless there learn something of his character. He 
shall have the full benefit of it. In turning over the pages of 
his book, we find, what nobody that 1 have met with here, ever 
discovered, that he is a very handsome man. Witness his 
pretty picture, in a Syrian Costume, forming the frontispiece of 
his first volume. Also, that he is a very generous man : “ A 
poor fellow,” he says, “ offered me a bundle of checks for 
which the sheik would only give him half their amount; I took 
them at their full value.” (Vol. 1, p. 209.) “ I visited the 

Lunatic Asylum, the inmates were famished, I sent out for a 
few piastres worth of bread, dates, and sour milk.” (Vol. 1, 
p. 221.) “ I found a wretched creature actually dying, I gave 
some piastres to buy straw for his last miserable pallet.” (Vol. 

1, p. 223.) But more than this, he is a most prodigal man : 
he gives one piastre after another to the Arab children. (Vol. 

2, p. 51.) He is a most enterprising person ; he gets through 
a passage of the Temple at Edfou, which Hamilton attempted, 
“ but could not succeed,” and in which Belzoni failed. (Vol. 
2, p. 67.) He is a most renowned physician: the Nubians 
imagined, that he effected cures by supernatural agency. (Vol. 
2, p. 81.) He is a most inventive person : wanting quicksilver 
to salivate his patients, he took it out of the bulb of his ther¬ 
mometer. (Vol. 2, p. 85.) He is a most successful searcher 
after curiosities. Dr. Clarke procured on his travels, only the 
sarcophagus of Alexander the Great, the colossal statue of the 
Eleusinian Ceres, the manuscript of Plato’s works and a few 
other such trifles; but Dr. Madden found, at ten miles from 
Alexandria, an English soldier’s regimental button, and, on the 
Bay of Aboukir, a British cannon ball. (Vol. 2, p. 89.) He 
is honest: he tries to persuade his boatman to restore a stolen 
pelican. (Vol. 2, p. 117.) He is a good merchant: he takes 
pipes and coffee, and pays in physic. (Vol. 2, p. 118.) He 
is polite : he drinks rakee spirits of dark color, and disagreeable 
taste to please his host. (Vol. 2, p. 120.) He is a pugilist: 
a Turkish officer who offended him, “ measured his length on 
the floor instanter;” (Vol. 2, p. 94,) and he knocked off the 
cocked hat of the English Consul at Jaffa. (Vol. 2, p. 267.) 
He is musical, and sings an Arab song; (Vol. 2, p. 127,) and 
he is loveable, for the girls glance at him most tenderly. (Vol. 
2, p. 210.) But all this is nothing compared with his learning : 
he acts as interpreter between Greeks and Arabs; (Vol. 2, p. 
287,) he delights in the declamation of Arab poetry ; he dis- 


6 


poses in > half a dozen words of the comparative reputation of 
Arab poets; and discusses, with lady Hester Stanhope, every 
subject connected with oriental learning, (Vol. 2, p. 174.) 

Will it be believed, Sir, that the man who makes such pre¬ 
tensions is unacquainted with the very rudiments of Arabic ? 
Let the note No. 1, in the Appendix prove it; and then, Sir, 
say whether much credit is to be placed in the statements of 
such a Charlatan. 

But if this quackery disfigures Dr. Madden’s “ Letters from 
the East,” how much more is this the case in his Essay on 
“ The Infirmities of Genius.” There he affects to be a classic, 
and misquotes right and left, from Greek and Latin authors, 
deriving, as the Quarterly Reviewers incontrovertibly prove, 
(See note 2,) his extracts from the “ Anatomy of Melancholy” 
of old Burton ; who, as they add, “ being generally so obliging 
as to give translations of what he quotes, is an invaluable reper- 
torium to one who would be a scholar with small Latin and no 
Greek.” Now, to be without either is no disgrace. Some of 
the master-spirits of this and other ages have been equally un¬ 
learned ; but “ he who can indulge in the poor vanity of dress¬ 
ing himself up in borrowed feathers, and making a pompous 
etalage of what does not belong to him,” is guilty of a fraud 
which should render us very suspicious of the truth of statements, 
which go to raise his reputation at the expense of that of his 
neighbors. Dr. Madden’s work on the West Indies has some 
merit. I am too candid to deny it: though the same parade of 
learning, which he does not possess, is exhibited in it. But 
what I would especially refer to in this book, as showing Dr. 
Madden’s inability to appreciate character, and judge of human 
actions, is his attempt to prove that Bolivar was a greater man 
than Washington. What reliance can we place on the under¬ 
standing; of an author who forms such opinions ? The last work 
of Dr. Madden is another evidence of his self-conceit and ig¬ 
norance. He will needs be a poet, (of all his mistakes perhaps 
the most egregious,) and a sacred poet to boot “ One of 
those, who, devoted to the cause of holiness, scatter over the 
paths of desolation flowers of unfading loveliness.” A bouquet 
of these “ lovely unfading flowers,” 1 present to you in the 
note No. 3 ; they are peculiarly odoriferous, and will leave a 
pleasing remembrance of the Dr. when we take leave of him. 

With these remarks, I think I have proved, that Dr. Madden 
is a conceited, unlettered man, wanting in judgment, and even 
dishonest; and that his testimony on the subject of which he 
writes so violently must therefore be received with great caution. 

Begging you to bear these facts in mind, 1 will now proceed 


7 


to examine the “ assumptions,” as he calls them, on which Dr. 
Madden would lead you to ground certain conclusions to the 
prejudice of our citizens in general, and of Mr. Trist in par¬ 
ticular. The first of them is, “ That the Spanish slave trade 
has gradually and steadily increased from the year 1820 to the 
present year (1839,) and the importations have been augmented 
from 15,000 to 25,000 per annum.” 

Here, Sir, we have a specimen of Dr. Madden’s usual loose 
statements, and illogical reasoning ; the first, inasmuch as he 
gives no proof whatever of the correctness of his assertions, the 
last, because he does not show, if true, how the abuse of the 
American flag, about which he is treating, is connected with the 
increased import of slaves. The fact is (1 derive my informa¬ 
tion from the published reports of the British Commissioners 
who reside here for the express purpose of watching the ope¬ 
rations of the slave dealers,) it has not gradually and steadily 
increased; for in 1S39, the arrivals in this part of the island, 
(and in no others are they considerable,) reached but 12,500 ; 
whilst in 1838, they were 14,400 ; in 1837, 15,500 ; in 1836, 
about 14,500 ; and in 1S35, 15,000. Meanwhile, of American 
vessels for Africa, in 1835, none cleared ; 1836, none cleared ; 
1837, about 11 ; in 1838, about 19 ; in 1839, about 24. So 
that, when the American flag was not employed to carry out 
goods to Africa, the import of slaves was larger than at present; 
and with its increased use, that import has happened to decrease. 
Dr. Madden says next, “ that the great amount of American 
capital invested in slave property in the island of Cuba, and the 
energy with which the new American settlers have entered on 
the cultivation of new land (the establishment of new American 
plantations averaging during the last three years, twenty a year) 
have largely contributed to give an impetus to the trade, which 
has been fatal to the efforts made for its suppression.” 

1 am not in the habit of using violent expressions, but when 
I see such a statement made as the above, namely, that since 
1836, American settlers have formed sixty new plantations, I 
declare the Doctor to be guilty of a falsehood. Not sixty, I 
would almost say not six, have been formed in that time by 
new settlers from America; and I call on Dr. Madden to 
prove this assertion, which, if true, he can easily do, for every 
property in the island is registered in the public offices. But 
admitting that some Americans have invested capital in estates 
in this island, where is the illegality of it? Have not British 
subjects done the same ? Did not Dr. Madden himself, shortly 
before his departure, go a visiting to one of his own country-, 
men, a native of Erin, who is a planter, and with whose recep- 


8 


tion he was delighted ? And is the purchase of Bozal negroes 
a necessary consequence of the formation of a plantation ? 

The worthy individual I have just alluded to, than whom no 
more humane or estimable man is living, would have told Dr. 
Madden, that his plantation was worked entirely by slaves, 
either introduced at a period when the slave-trade was licit, or 
born here ; and that many other plantations were in the same 
state. It is true, as may be said, that by employing slaves at 
all, these foreigners create a demand for such labor, and thus 
encourage the illicit traffic. But it is just as true, that those 
British merchants that purchase the produce of Cuba, those 
London Bankers who grant credits for carrying on its exporta¬ 
tion, those English mechanics who employ negroes to work for 
them, and even the Doctor himself when he sips his coffee or 
sweetens his tea, contribute in a greater or less proportion to 
the encouragement of the slave trade. If this is to be avoid¬ 
ed, Congress and the British Parliament must pass a non-inter¬ 
course act, prohibiting Americans and Englishmen from visiting 
the island of Cuba. 

Dr. Madden’s third assumption, is, “that the recent treaty 
of 1835, between Spain and England, for the suppression of 
the Slave Trade, has been successfully evaded by the practice 
adopted of shipping the stores for Africa on board American 
vessels at the Havana.” And I would ask him, whether the 
same stores are not shipped by British vessels from England ? 
1 have before me a Liverpool paper, in which I find clearan¬ 
ces from thence and London of bolt-iron, cotton-goods, Gene¬ 
va rum, &c., to Bonny, the market whence more slaves are 
exported, than from any other on the coast of Africa. 

He asserts, fourthly, “ That American vessels are suffered 
to proceed with stores to Africa, and even return to the island 
of Cuba, under the Portuguese flag, with full knowledge of 
the Consul of the United States.” The first part of this state¬ 
ment is correct; American vessels are suffered to proceed from 
hence with stores to Africa, with the full knowledge of' the 
Consul, as English are from Liverpool without the interference 
of that government. The second is nonsense. How can a 
vessel under Portuguese colors be an American ? 

Fifth, he says, “ that all the vessels in the Spanish slave 
trade are built in America, chiefly in Baltimore ; and are pub¬ 
licly sold for the slave trade in the Havana by the foreign 
merchants.” This is not exact. The Socorro is French 
built; some of the fastest sailers are Spanish built; one or two 
are built here ; and one, if I mistake not, the Lime, was 
built in England ; but owing to that country not being famous 


9 


for the construction of fast sailing merchant vessels, few are 
sent for sale to Havana. But for this circumstance, Great 
Britain would just as well supply the slave traders here with 
ships, as she does with muskets, gunpowder, manufactures and 
other articles. The $1,250,000 of goods manufactured in 
Lancashire annually, and adapted only for the slave trade, 
according to Mr. Buxton’s statement, form a somewhat differ¬ 
ent amount to what we manufacture, in shipping, applied to 
the same object. The British Commissioners’ returns for 
1838, before referred to, show, that nineteen American ves¬ 
sels cleared for Africa in that year. Let us take them at the 
high average value of $10,000 each, and we shall find how 
small is the sum which America supplies to the trade annually 
compared with England, $ 190,000 against $1,250,000 ! And 
it would be an amusing fact, if it were not too disgusting, that 
one of the sellers of these vessels in this place is a man, well 
known in Boston, with whom, as the note No. 4. shows, Dr. 
Madden was on terms of intimacy up to the time of his depar¬ 
ture. Here, Sir, I place the Doctor in a dilemma. Either he 
knew, that that person was connected with such business, and 
if so ought to have avoided him : or he did not, and if so, made 
a very false representation in his deposition taken at Hartford, 
in the case of the Amistad, when he stated that he was as 
fully informed of what was passing here respecting the slave 
trade as any foreigner could be. In fact, Dr. Madden is very 
inconsistent or very ignorant, or he would never have named 
as his official substitute, in his absence, a gentleman who sells, 
not, it is true, Baltimore clippers (as he gets no consignments 
of them.) but as many Scotch goods, suitable for slave trading 
purposes, as the strait laced manufacturers in Glasgow choose 
to send, and the loose moraled traders of Havana think fit to 
buy of him. Dr. Madden goes on to say,— 

Sixthly. “ That fraudulent transfers of the papers of American 
vessels employed or destined for the slave trade are frequently 
made.” If the Doctor means, that degraded citizens of the 
United States, like his 'protege , Mr. Joshua W. Littig, admit 
ships to be registered in their names, which really belong to 
Spaniards, he is quite right; then fraudulent transfers do take 
place. But what has the American Government or people, or 
Consul to do with this fact ? Such rogues as Littig are to be 
met with in most countries ; perhaps even in Ireland. Let us 
suppose, that a British ship-owner had a vessel to sell, and 
that Dr. Madden was a shipmaster, and lent his name to Mr. 
Forcade or any other notorious slave-trader, and allowed him¬ 
self to be called her owner, could the British Government, 
2 


10 


people or Consul, prevent the transfer? certainly not. And 
this is all that was done in the case of the Eagle. The 
papers given by Dr. Madden at page 27 to 32 of his pam¬ 
phlet prove it. They show, that a Mr. Wingate, an Ameri¬ 
can citizen, holding the power of Mr. Harrison and Mr. Price, 
the owners of the vessel, sold her to another American citizen, 
called Joshua W. Littig, and that the bill of sale was made 
before or by Mr. Trist. But what is there of fraud, collusion, 
or connivance on the part of Mr. Trist in this act ? The fraud 
was on the part of Mr. Littig, who accepted the purchase in his 
name, paid another man’s money for it, took command of the 
Eagle as owner, though he knew that he was not so, and 
bound himself to follow the orders of one Francisco Morales, 
who was in fact the agent of the Spanish buyer. 1 will leave 
it to any merchant, even though he should be a second Zacha- 
riah Macauley, or any commercial lawyer, or any man of prac¬ 
tical knowledge in any country, I will leave it to Lord Brough¬ 
am, whose views respecting slavery are ultra, and whom 
according to Dr. Madden, Mr. Trist has insulted by calling 
him “ Henry Brougham without the Lord,” (as if the nobility 
of that distinguished man did not make all titles superfluous,) 
to say whether the transfer of the Eagle, as described by 
Dr. Madden, from one citizen to another, was or was not frau¬ 
dulent on the part of any one but Mr. Littig, and whether Mr. 
Trist, in his character of Consul could, according to the laws 
of his country, have refused to make it ? But Dr. Madden 
says,— 

Seventhly. “ That slaves under fictitious titles, described in 
fraudulent declarations as free indented laborers, and duly attest¬ 
ed by the Consul of the United States, have been exported from 
Havana to Texas ; ” and in his remarks on this point, the wor¬ 
thy Doctor has made several most egregious blunders. He 
declares,— 

1st. That Mr. Trist officially acknowledges, that he gave 
his signature to the fraudulent declarations of captains of Amer¬ 
ican vessels carrying slaves to Texas ; and, 

2d. That the British Commissioners having in their cor¬ 
respondence with their government mentioned the subject, it 
was in all probability made known at Washington, and Mr. 
Trist in consequence , on the 23 d of Feb. 1836, issued a no¬ 
tice to American shipmasters of the illegality of taking slaves 
or colored persons held to service or labor, to Texas or to any 
other country. 

Now the fact is, that Mr. Trist never acknowledged any 


11 


such thing. What he did acknowledge* was, that he had cer¬ 
tified the signature of an American settler in Texas, (Colonel 
Fannin,) to a declaration that certain negroes whom that individ¬ 
ual had bought, were to be free after an apprenticeship of sev¬ 
en years in Texas, then not recognised by the United States, 
but regarded as a part of Mexico, where slavery did not, as it 
does not, exist; and in doing so, he very justly considered him¬ 
self, not as promoting the slave trade or slavery, but on the 
contrary, as assisting to rescue a number of his fellow-creatures 
from bondage in this island ; and 1 should like to know what 
Dr. Madden would have said, if Mr. Trist had refused his 
signature to such a document. But this act had nothing 
whatever to do with American ships or American shipmasters. 
The warning of the 2d February, 1836, has no connexion 
with it, except in Dr. Madden’s addle brain ; and though still 
on the door of the American Consulate, would not prevent 
Mr. Trist from giving again, if called for, certificates to the 
same effect as those which he gave Colonel Fannin. The 
certificate has no relation to the shipment of negroes by Amer¬ 
ican vessels, — the notice no reference to any thing else. But 
the greatest absurdity is the supposition, that the despatch of 
the British Commissioners, in allusion to the Texian slave 
trade, the first they ever wrote on the subject, on the 1st of 
January 1836, had any influence, by being communicated by 
the British Government to Washington, in producing Mr. 
Trist’s notice to shipmasters. Dr. Madden is a poor hand 
at dates. The above-mentioned despatch, arrived in England 
on the 29th February, 1836, — Mr. Trist’s notice, as we 
have seen, was published at Havana on the 23d of the same 
month. 

But Dr. Madden goes on to assert, — 

Eighthly. “ That within the last two years and a half, two 
vessels have been detected landing slaves in the United States ; 
one of which, the Emperor, was taken by an American ves¬ 
sel of war and sent to Pensacola for trial ? and on her release, 
by one of those illegal transfers became Portuguese, and was 
subsequently taken, about June last, by a British cruiser, under 
the name of the Sierra del Pilar.” 

One of these vessels, the Doctor does not name. 

The other, the Emperor, was, he says, taken by an 
American ship of war, sent to Pensacola, and there released. 
The sentence of a court, therefore, disproves the Doctor’s 
statement. She was released. And where is the American 


Or rather ,freely make known , without being questioned by any one. 


12 


who will believe, for the purity of our Judges is proverbial, 
that if really detected in slave trading, she would not have been 
condemned ? The first case rests on the Doctor’s bare asser¬ 
tion, poor authority, as we have seen, under any circumstances, 
but especially so when he is unable to give a single particular 
to establish it. What was the first vessel’s name ? where did 
she load ? where did she land her cargo ? at what date did 
the transaction take place? how and by whom was she de¬ 
tected? Surely these are questions we may require to be 
satisfactorily answered, before we believe one word of Dr. 
Madden’s assertion. What the sale of the Emperor to the 
Portuguese has to do with American slave trading, I am at a 
loss to know. Just as much, I suppose, as the sale of the 
British brigantine Arrogante to the Spanish, by whom she is 
now navigated under the name of the Iberia. 

The ninth of Dr. Madden’s assumptions, is,— 

“ That the slave trade of Cuba for the last two years has 
been carried on under the protection of the Portuguese and 
American flags.” 

The tenth, “ That the Spanish flag during that period, with 
one or two exceptions, fell into complete disuse.” 

These statements are true, except as concerns the American 
flag, which has only been used indirectly, like the English, or 
directly, when some unworthy citizen occasionally lent his 
name to a Spanish slave trader, in the manner noticed in 
this letter. But as far as the Doctor’s assertions apply, they 
they might go farther back; for even in 1837, there clear¬ 
ed hence for Africa forty Portuguese, and only nineteen 
Spanish, and eleven American vessels, and arrived here from 
Africa forty-eight Portuguese and three Spanish. But why 
mix up the Portuguese with the American flag ? What have 
the United States Government and its agents to do with the 
former ? The latter , it is admitted , has been occasionally 
abused; by what laws were American authorities to prevent 
it ? A vessel comes here. She clears out on a trading voyage 
for the coast of Africa ; there may be suspicions of her being 
intended to be employed for illegal purposes, but can the Con¬ 
sul or any other agent, on mere suspicion, hinder her depar¬ 
ture ? No, Sir, nor if an English vessel were to be employed 
under similar circumstances, could the English Consul prevent 
it. Though not versed in English law, 1 state the fact with¬ 
out the fear of contradiction. George Canning (I hope Dr. 
Madden will not find fault with me for omitting to call him 
the Right Honorable,) in 1825 instructed Mr. Parkinson, then 
Consul at Bahia, in such an event, not to detain any English 


13 


ship or shipmaster, but to discourage the latter from such a voy¬ 
age, and if he persisted in it, to report the case home ! On the 
same plan Mr. Trist acted. When he thought vessels were 
intended for illegal traffic, he warned the masters of the conse¬ 
quences, and never failed, in his half-yearly returns, to report 
to his government the departure of American vessels for Africa 
as well as for all other parts. Had he acted otherwise, had he 
been led away, by ignorant zeal for the interests of humanity, 
or an unworthy affectation of zeal, to detain an American vessel, 
on mere suspicion, he would have infringed the laws of our 
country ; and those brawlers, who, with Dr. Madden in their 
van, are now so clamorous, would have raised their voices still 
more loudly against Mr. Trist, and with better reason ; especially 
those of the Doctor’s followers who, as will appear further on, 
have been personally engaged in the slave trade. But though 
Mr. Trist acted according to the laws, he saw the defect of 
these laws, and pointed out to our government the necessity of 
amending them to prevent the abuse of our flag; as appears 
from the following paragraph in the President’s last annual 
message. 

“ Recent experience has shown that the provisions in our 
existing laws which relate to the sale and transfer of American 
vessels while abroad, are extremely defective. Advantage has 
been taken of these defects to give to vessels wholly belonging 
to foreigners, and navigating the ocean, an apparent American 
ownership. This character has been so well simulated as to 
afford them comparative security in prosecuting the slave trade, 
a traffic emphatically denounced in our statutes, regarded with 
abhorrence by our citizens, and of which the effectual suppres¬ 
sion is no where more sincerely desired than in the United States. 
These circumstances make it proper to recommend to your 
early attention a careful revision of these laws, so that, without 
impeding the freedom and facilities of our navigation, or im¬ 
pairing an important branch of our industry connected with it, 
the integrity and honor of our flag may be carefully preserved. 
Information derived from our Consul at Havana, showing the 
necessity of this, was communicated to a committee of the Sen¬ 
ate near the close of the last session, but too late, as it appeared, 
to be acted upon. It will be brought to your notice by the 
proper department, with additional communications from other 
sources.” 

Is it after this that our citizens will be made to believe, by an 
agent of a foreign government, that our Republic or its repre¬ 
sentative in Havana is anxious to promote the slave trade ? 
The heads of the British administration would never have of- 


14 


fended us by such an insinuation ; indelicacy of this kind be¬ 
longs only to an understrapper like Dr. Madden. 

The eleventh assumption of the said Doctor is, “ That on the 
dismissal from office of the notorious slave trader, Fernandez, the 
Portuguese Consul, Mr. Trist became the acting consul for that 
nation.” 

Before I proceed to answer this assumption, I must be al¬ 
lowed a slight digression. It is due to Mr. Fernandez, one of 
the most amiable and intelligent men resident in Havana, to 
say that the British Government and their Commissioners at 
Sierra Leone are completely in error in one point respecting 
him. (that such a blunderer as Dr. Madden should be, would 
hardly have been worth noticing.) They, the Sierra Leone 
Commissioners, in a despatch of the 30th May, 1838, say that 
the Havana Consul selected by Portugal “ is one of the most 
extensive and notorious of the slave dealers whose names are 
to be found in the records of the different mixed courtsand 
that “ this Don Jose Fernandez appears to be the same per¬ 
son to whom the letter at page 49, of class A. 1831, was ad¬ 
dressed by Edward Jousiffe, now a convict in Freetown gaol. 
In that letter Jousiffe offered to take a share in some of Fer¬ 
nandez’s slave vessels, and to ship him one thousand prime 
slaves yearly from Rio Pongas; ” and the British Govern¬ 
ment, as is proved by a letter to their minister at Lisbon, 
adopted these ideas. But the fact is, that Mr. Jose Miguel 
Fernandez, the late Portuguese Consul, is not the individual 
whom the British Government and Commissioners suppose. 
That individual is one Don Jose Fernandez, a well known 
planter in this island. Don Jose Miguel Fernandez is never 
once mentioned , either directly or indirectly , in such of the 
records of the mixed courts as have been published; and 
though I confess, Dr. Channing, for my case is so clear, that I 
wish to conceal nothing, it is said that this Jose Miguel Fer¬ 
nandez, like many men esteemed respectable, and really so in 
all other matters, once pursued the slave trade, (I could name 
some in Liverpool who did so after it was abolished in England,) 
yet he has long since given it up, long before he was appointed 
Consul here ; and I would add, that his removal, not effected, 
as Dr. Madden supposes, by representations of the British 
Government, but at the instigation of a fraudulent-paper sell¬ 
ing Consul of H. M. F. Majesty, (whose name the inhabitants 
of Baltimore perhaps know,) has contributed more than any 
thing else to the abuse of the Portuguese flag for slave trading 
purposes. This abuse, Mr. Fernandez prevented ; he detected 
several false registers, prevented transfers of foreign vessels to 


15 


the Portuguese flag, after January, 1837, the period at which 
such transfers ceased to be legal, and in fact he did every 
thing which the laws of the country that he represented justi¬ 
fied his doing, to put an end to the slave trade. The abuses, 
which under Mr. Fernandez ceased, have been renewed under 
a foreign Consul. That Consul is not Mr. Trist, he is too 
high-minded to countenance fraud. But to return : Mr. Trist 
never was acting Portuguese Consul. He, as the Consul of a na¬ 
tion at amity with Portugal, as any other Consul, except perhaps 
the English, for reasons not necessary to be explained, would, 
if called on, have done, certified the signatures of the Spanish 
authorities to documents presented to him, and the matricula 
and muster rolls of Portuguese vessels. But in so doing how 
did he connive at or promote the slave trade ? What new 
character did his signature give to the flag of that nation ? 
Did such signature render Portuguese vessels less liable to 
search or examination ? It never was expected that it should, 
the result has proved that it did not. But if the above remarks 
which I have made be true, then the 12th assumption of Dr. 
Madden, “ that the use and abuse of these two flags were of 
necessity known to Mr. Trist and were connived at by him,” 
falls to the ground. 

1 have thus, 1 flatter myself, disposed pretty satisfactorily of 
Dr. Madden’s twelve assumptions, as he calls them; from 
which you are to draw such extraordinary conclusions to the 
prejudice of a large portion of our fellow citizens. And here 
my task, as far as my attempts go to disprove Dr. Madden’s 
professed charge as to “ the abuse of the flag of the United 
States in the Island of Cuba, and the advantage taken of its 
protection in promoting the slave trade,” might end. But he has 
so mixed up the little that he has to say on this subject, with 
the much, that he adduces against Mr. Trist, that I am obliged, 
in order to pursue him through all his sinuosities, though the 
defence of my countrymen is alone what 1 have in view, to take 
up the cudgels for Mr. Trist, especially as the Doctor would re¬ 
present that gentleman’s continuance in office, as a proof of the 
government of the United States countenancing the Cuban slave 
trade. 

Let us therefore see what the learned author has to bring for¬ 
ward besides his famous “ assumptions.” 

As many of Dr. Madden’s charges against Mr. Trist have 
not the slightest connexion, with the subject of his letter, I 
shall only touch on the same en passant , and this merely to bear 
my brief testimony, humble though it be, to the character and 
feelings and intelligence of one of our worthiest citizens. I 


16 


will dispose of these charges first, and proceed afterwards to 
those made against him, in which our government and country- 
are mixed up. The exceedingly fastidious Dr. Madden, who is 
so much an enemy to invective and vulgar abuse, has, notwith¬ 
standing asserted that Mr. Tristis “ arrogant,” “ neglectful of his 
duties,” “ rude,” “ incapable,” “ intractable,” “ injudicious,” 
“ overbearing,” “ dishonest,” “ self-sufficient,” “ vain,” “ pe¬ 
dantic,” “ prolix,” “ an official chimpanzee,” “ a political pig¬ 
my,” “ a participator in piracy,” “ a mighty small gentleman.” 
Whether this be invective and vulgarity, you, Sir, will judge. 
But it is at all events false. Mr. Trist is, as the well bred and 
well educated of our countrymen who have visited this Island, 
as our respectable merchants established here, and as a vast 
many foreigners know, quite the reverse of what is stated. Even 
Mr. Kennedy, the chief British Commissioner, in a despatch to 
Lord Palmerston, dated the 22nd August, 1838, bears testimony 
to Mr. Trist being “ a gentleman of high character, as well as 
of considerable reading and observation.” And again, our au¬ 
thor says, Mr. Trist “ is poor :” a sad offence in Dr. Madden’s 
eyes ! And yet he is “ mercenary :” a quality in singular op¬ 
position to his poverty. Mr. Trist is an “ Egotist” and a “ Pre¬ 
tender to learningand this is worst of all, for it is treading 
rather too closely on a territory which, as I have shown before, 
is Dr. Madden’s own. 

Mr. Trist’s friends would have been better pleased had he 
not anathematized the British House of Lords. But after all 
he has done no more than follow the example of some of its own 
members, and of many of the lower house. His friends could 
also well have spared his remarks on Brougham, or O’Connell; 
but if we remember their violence when speaking of slavery in 
the United States, the vehemence of Mr. Trist may be excused. 
His same friends, or at least many of them, think that Mr. Trist 
has laid himself open to animadversion, by the mention of his 
“ Grandmother,” and Dr. Madden has made merry with this 
name. Dr. Madden probably never had a Grandmother. But 
I had ; and when 1 recollect that, after shedding a tear over the 
graves of parents, of whom I was too early bereaved, it was to 
that revered person, that I owe all that 1 know and all that I 
feel,—that she first pointed out to me the path of duty ; my sen¬ 
timents teach me to respect, not to laugh at, Mr. Trist for an 
allusion to her to whom he is indebted for that which constitutes 
him, better than all titles, one of the nobles of the earth. He 
is also blamed for speaking of his daughter, that lovely child, 
who, under the blessing* of Heaven, will, I doubt not, one day 
return from Europe to adorn her country. The arts of peace 


17 


are those to which he would dedicate her talents, but in the 
fervor of his patriotism, he would wish that, if in this sphere her 
usefulness were circumscribed, if war should rage, if the inde¬ 
pendence of his country were endangered, even her arm should 
be raised in its defence. Who shall limit the conceptions such 
a father has formed of his children’s sufficiency ? Who the af¬ 
fections of such a heart ? Not Dr. Madden. He can compre¬ 
hend no such feelings. The extent of his parental attachment 
is exhibited in the perpetration of a bad sonnet to his u audacious 
boy,”—“ his tiny warbler.” (See Twelve months in the West 
Indies, American Edition, Vol. 1, page 157.) 

So much for the Doctor’s piquant hors d’oeuvre , in which he 
has endeavored to knead together with culinary skill, pseudo¬ 
philanthropy, vulgar invective, and kitchen wit. 

I now come to that part of his attack on Mr. Trist, which 
has reference to the latter’s alleged defence of the slave trade. 
And here, as his charges are of a most serious character, it is 
necessary that I should classify them, (if a classification can be 
made of his disordered ravings) so as to reply, point by point, to 
what he asserts. 

The following are these charges so classified :— 

1. That Mr. Trist bestowed “ the most unmeasured reproach 
it is possible to conceive on the British Government.” (Pam¬ 
phlet, page 7.) 

2. That he ventured to “ bestow a vast quantity of abuse on 
the British members of the Commission for the suppression of 
the slave trade.” (p. 7.) 

3. That he sent back an official communication addressed to 
him by the Commissioners on the subject of the slave trade; 
(p. 10) being thus guilty of “a short and simple act of vulgar 
insult.” 

4. That two subsequent communications of the said gen¬ 
tleman, he answered by “ delivering himself of a great amount 
of wrath and rigmarole.” (p. 11.) 

5. That he “ actually suggested the assassination of the Com¬ 
missioners, for no other reason, but their hostility to the interests 
of this traffic.” (p. 13.) 

6. That in the only two cases of American vessels employed 
in the slave trade in which he interfered, his interference was 
applied in one case “ illegally, and in the other untimely.” 
(p. 27.) 

7 . That he had an unfortunate Emancipado woman, and 
u was still receiving from her, after years of service, a paltry 
pittance of three rials a day, from the sale of fruits, hawked 

3 


18 


about the Havana, by this poor creature, robbed of her freedom, 
and the price of it thus daily pocketed by him.” (p. 26*) 

8. That he entertained a deliberate doubt whether the slave 
trade considered merely in itself, were not a positive benefit to 
its supposed victims, (p. 5 ; and again, p. 15;) and therefore, 
he officially recorded a predilection for its interests, (p. 7;) 
fought for it “ with the indiscriminate fury of an intoxicated 
partizan,” (p. 19 ;) and after whitewashing the strumpet’s char¬ 
acter, as last took her to his arms, (p. 13.) 

it will hardly be believed, but it is a fact, that Mr. Trist’s 
communications, some of which are, and all of which, I hope, 
will be published in the British papers respecting the slave trade 
presented to Parliament, show that the above charges are for 
the most part either utterly untrue, or in the highest degree ex¬ 
aggerated ; and that the proofs of them adduced by Dr. Madden, 
are such distortions, truncations, and false combinations of what 
Mr. Trist has said, that if a man in the ordinary relations of 
life, had been guilty of a like fraud, and were brought before a 
New-England jury, he would stand a fair chance of spending 
a few years of his life in a penitentiary. 

In the first place, Mr. Trist has not bestowed any unmeas¬ 
ured reproach on the British Government, nor in fact any re¬ 
proach beyOnd that which some of her own most distinguished 
citizens have done. As a democrat he is not peculiarly well af¬ 
fected to a country in which the aristocracy has so much sway ; 
nor, impressed as he is, and we all are, with the importance of 
national independence, can he feel any extraordinary attach¬ 
ment to a power which seems to trample on the internal rights 
of other, and especially weaker nations. The Duke of Wel¬ 
lington’s speech on the act for the seizure of Portuguese ves¬ 
sels and his protest against it, will bear Mr. Trist out in saying 
that she has done so. 

Secondly. Of the British Commissioners in Havana, Mr. 
Trist certainly speaks warmly ; but they had previously, as we 
shall see, insulted him. Moreover, he, the bitter enemy of 
deception, never could be expected to show much considera¬ 
tion towards persons whom he conscientiously, though perhaps 
erroneously, thought mere actors in a solemn farce, by which 
they delude their countrymen and feather their own nests. 

Thirdly. The tables will be sadly turned, when we consider 
“ the short and simple act of vulgar insult ” which Dr. Mad¬ 
den says Mr. Trist practised, when he returned a communica¬ 
tion addressed to him by the Commissioners. That communi- 
tion was subscribed by Dr. Madden, then acting arbitrator, and 
his colleague. The following is a copy of it: —^ 


19 


His Majesty's Commissioners to the American Consul. 

Havana, 17 th October , 1836. 

Sir, — We have the honor to acquaint you with the follow¬ 
ing circumstances as being intimately connected with your 
consulate and the flag of your country, which it will be our 
\painful duty to report to His JMajesty's Government. 

During the month of September there arrived at this port 
for sale, from the United States, four new schooners, we believe 
two from New York and two from Baltimore, all however 
built at the latter place, viz: the Anaconda, Viper, Emanuel, 
and Dolores, especially constructed and peculiarly fitted for 
carrying on the Slave Trade. The two former of these vessels, 
having received on board from the French house of Forcade 
h Co., a cargo, which by the Treaty of the 28th June, 1835, 
would have condemned as a Slaver any vessel bearing Spanish 
colors, cleared out and sailed under the American flag, the 
Anaconda on the 6th, and the Viper on the 10th inst. for the 
Cape de Verds, there to be transferred to a Portuguese subject, 
and to proceed with the flag of that nation to the coast of 
Africa upon a slaving enterprise. The protection which these 
schooners will receive from the American colors, both as regards 
their fitting and cargo, will effectually secure them against cap¬ 
ture by His Majesty’s cruisers until they arrive at the scene of 
their depredations. The Emanuel and Dolores have we be¬ 
lieve left the port under the Spanish flag. But we have also to 
inform you that some short time since, the brig Martha of 
Portland, which arrived here from Matanzas, took on board, in 
this harbor, a cargo which would equally have confiscated as a 
Slaver, any Spanish vessel, and sailed direct for the coast of 
Africa, to deliver it at some of the numerous factories or dens 
of infamy established there in connexion with the Slave Traders 
of Havana. 

The facilities thus afforded by the flag of the United States 
for carrying on this inhuman traffic could never, we feel con¬ 
vinced, have been contemplated by your enlightened government; 
however, we do not entertain the least doubt, but that a knowl¬ 
edge of the above circumstances will instantly produce mea¬ 
sures calculated to remedy so deplorable and flagrant a profana¬ 
tion of the American colors, especially as during the period 
that these schooners were taking in their cargoes the harbor 
was visited by American men-of-war, which, had any conven¬ 
tion existed between the two governments such as has been 
acceded to by almost every other maritime power, a seizure 
of the most important nature, as regards these iniquitous expe¬ 
ditions, must have been effected. We have, he. 


20 


Can any thing be more insulting or foolish than this letter ? 
It begins by what may almost be called a threat to report Mr. 
Trist and his countrymen to the English Government! to report 
citizens of the United States to the King of Great Britain! 
Men who know our extreme sensibility on the subject of na¬ 
tional independence, natural and becoming to a young country, 
which has so recently achieved its liberty, and that this sensi¬ 
bility is more peculiarly called into action, when an invasion of 
that national independence is even hinted at by subjects of that 
power from whose dominion we have emancipated ourselves, 
will not wonder at Mr. Trist’s excitement on reading this let¬ 
ter, more especially as the Commissioners go on to launch out, 
into an absurd charge against American vessels for carrying 
what an English vessel, in spite of the United States, might 
carry with impunity, and exhaust their superlatives in lament¬ 
ing the iniquitous expeditions , and the deplorable and flagrant 
profanation of the American colors in the transport of merchan¬ 
dize, chiefly manufactured in England, to the Dens of Infamy 
on the coast of Africa. To conclude their epistle, these gen¬ 
tlemen at last intimate the desirableness of “ a convention ex¬ 
isting between America and Great Britain, such as has been 
acceded to by almost every other maritime poweras if 
Dr. Madden and Mr. Trist were likely to bring about an ar¬ 
rangement which Sir Stratford Canning and Mr. Adams, Mr. 
Addison and Mr. Clay, Sir Charles Vaughan and Mr. McLane 
and Mr. Forsyth and other distinguished negotiators had at¬ 
tempted in vain to conclude. 

Now for Mr. Trist’s answer. It was not rude, nor vulgar, 
nor insulting, nor indignant as Dr. Madden asserts. It was 
what a gentleman, such as Mr. Trist, might be expected to 
write. But it shall speak for itself. Here it is : — 

Mr. Trist to II. M. Commissioners . 

Consulate of the United States, > 
Havana, 29th November, 1836. ) 

Gentlemen, — On my return to this city a few days since 
from the United States, I had the honor to receive your letter 
of the 17th ult., which would have been sooner acknowledged 
had not matters of more immediate urgency prevented my be¬ 
stowing upon it the full consideration, which, at a glance the 
importance of its bearings was seen to require. 

It has probably escaped your attention, that overtures, pre¬ 
viously made, for a convention of the character referred to in 
the closing paragraph of your letter, were more recently re¬ 
peated by H. B. M. Minister at Washington, and there declined 
by the Government of the United States in a manner evincing 


21 


the most decided disinclination to become a party to even any 
discussion whatever of the subject. 

Had this been adverted to, you would have been sensible 
that, besides the general objection to my holding with any agent 
of a foreign government any correspondence not warranted by 
the very limited official character with which I am invested, 
the occurrence to which I refer has rendered it particularly in¬ 
cumbent on me, to decline receiving any communication of the 
nature of that which 1 now beg leave to return. I have, &c. 

Such was “ the short and simple act of vulgar insult.” 
Against whom, Sir, does the charge lie ? 

Fourthly. With the subsequent correspondence between Mr. 
Trist and H. B. M. Commissioners, as far as the commission is 
concerned, Dr. Madden has nothing to do. It hasbeen a fraud on 
the part of the latter to suffer himself to be paraded about the 
United States, as a member of that court. He is not and never 
was one, except for a short time, as a locum tenens; and Mr. 
Kennedy, and Mr. Dalrymple, the present judge and arbitrator, 
if they have complaints against Mr. Trist for delivering himself 
of so much “wrath and rigmarole,” will knowhow to urge 
them better than Dr. Madden. 

Fifthly. The charge of Mr. Trist’s having actually suggested 
the assassination of the Commissioners is one of so atrocious a 
nature, that none but a thoroughly bad man would bring it for¬ 
ward against his neighbor, without having the clearest proof of its 
being true. What then shall we think of Dr. Madden, when 
we establish the fact of this charge being not more atrocious, 
than false ? The remark which Dr. Madden has quoted from 
Mr. Trist in proof of his base assertion, (pamphlet, p. 13,) as 
to the re-awakening of the old Guerilla spirit, among the Span¬ 
iards, caused by the interference of Great Britain and her agents, 
with the national independence of Spain, is no “ suggestion ,” 
of either one kind or other. It is a simple statement of the neces¬ 
sary consequences of a foreign power endeavoring, and more 
especially in an insulting way, to force laws on a people like 
the Spaniards. It is a simple description of what has taken, 
and what could not but take place, as the result of such an at¬ 
tempt. 

Those who were opposed to the slave trade became, Mr. 
Trist shows, from patriotism, pseudo-patriotism if you like, its 
friends ; landed proprietors of high name and feeling, who 
were against it, its supporters; and, as the commissioners ob¬ 
served in a despatch to their government, such a state of things 
was brought about “ that there scarcely now exists an indi- 


22 


vidual in the Island who would not do his utmost to sustain it.” 
“ The conviction of many,” as Mr. Trist well remarks, “ may 
be against the slave trade ; the feelings of their bosoms towards 
the man capable of engaging therein, might prompt them to hang 
the offender. But they have had awakened in them a strong 
overpowering sense of the fact, that this cannot be done without 
bowing the neck to foreign made, and foreign imposed law. 
This comes over them, and every duty is in their view as noth¬ 
ing before the one duty of defiance ; every feeling is over¬ 
whelmed in its angry surges.” A Guerilla spirit is kindled up, 
and if so frightful an issue as that described by a British agent 
in Brazil, “ where the enemy of the slave trade had to dread 
the assassin’s knife even in the open day, and in the public 
gaze,” need not be apprehended here, the fact arises perhaps 
solely from the better state of the police, or the greater insigni¬ 
ficance of those who oppose the traffic. These are matters of 
history. As such they are stated by Mr. Trist, and he who 
perverts that gentleman’s meaning, and denounces him as the 
instigator, or suborner of assassins, is one whom every honest 
man would do well to avoid meeting in the dark. 

Sixthly. Dr. Madden says that Mr Trist interfered only in two 
cases of vessels employed, or intended to be employed, in the 
slave trade. The one the case of the Venus, the other of 
the Thomas of Havana; for this, though Dr. Madden does 
not mention her name, was the only vessel ever placed in the 
circumstances which he describes. Now a greater proof of 
complete ignorance there never was given, than that given by 
Dr. Madden, in reference to these two cases. In the first, that 
of the Venus, Mr. Trist did not interfere at all. The Venus 
came in, was sold, and went out an American vessel. It is 
probable that she afterwards returned as the Portuguese ship 
Duquesa de Braganza, after landing slaves. But Mr. Trist 
was not Portuguese Consul, he had no control over her as a 
Portuguese ; and an American she no longer was. He did not 
therefore, I repeat, interfere at all. In the other case, the 
Thomas of Havana, he did, and did most effectually ; for by 
his detention of her, and subsequently by refusing altogether to 
recognise as Americans, vessels having only sea-passes, not re¬ 
gisters, thus giving vigor to a law which the clearing officers 
in the United States seemed to have overlooked, he frustrated 
a cunningly devised plan of the slave traders for employing 
the American flag to a greater extent for their unworthy pur¬ 
poses. The case of the Thomas of Havana, may elucidate 
my assertion. This vessel was once the General Espartero, a 
Spanish craft. Her owner, wishing to employ her under the 


23 


colors of the United States, sent her with a worthless fellow 
called Howell, (who has since been a coadjutor of Mr. Fer¬ 
nando Clark and Dr. Madden, in their clamors against Mr. 
Trist,) to Key West; there she was sold to him, and came 
back as his property, to load for Africa. The intention was, 
that on arriving there, she should take Spanish or Portuguese 
colors for her return, and on reaching this place, should again 
go to Key West, and again be made an American, once more 
to pursue her nefarious traffic, and so on, as long as she might 
last, or not be captured. The same plan was intended to be 
pursued with the Comhita, Amable Salome, and others ; but 
Mr. Trist, knowing their infamous intentions, caused the Thomas 
of Havana, to be seized by an American man-of-war, though 
he knew it was a “ coup de force which international law 
would hardly justify; — and by this blow, and by his subse¬ 
quent refusal to clear any vessels without registers, prevented a 
Jraud which would otherwise have contributed very materially 
to slave trading . The collectors of American Custom-houses, 
and other Consuls, though not with a bad intention, but incon¬ 
siderately, gave such clearances ; whilst Mr. Trist, scrupulously 
anxious to execute the laws of his country, refused to do it, 
though bribes after bribes were offered him. — And this is the 
man whom Dr. Madden sets down as a poor, mercenary encour- 
ager of the slave trade. 

I now come to the emancipated negroes. The story Dr. 
Madden tells about them as a class, is in the main correct. 
They who ought, in justice, at the term of their apprenticeship, 
to have been made free, have been of late consigned, at prices 
which constitute a sale, to a longer continuance of bondage, 
perhaps to a life of slavery. It is unfortunate for Dr. Madden, 
the sole object of whose pamphlet is to criminate us Americans, 
that in a communication published in the parliamentary papers, 
he has declared that several were so bought for British miners 
in Cuba; but it is still more unfortunate for the Secretary of 
the British Commissioners, that Dr. Madden has thought fit to 
lug him into the affair, because though he is a nice, genteel 
young man, whose feelings I should be sorry to hurt, yet as he 
is set up as the one sole example of an individual who has “ob¬ 
tained the freedom ” of a captured negro put out to appren¬ 
ticeship by the Spanish Government, I am obliged to state his 
case. Mr. Jackson, for such is the name of the gentleman, 
had four Africans so given to him. Of these, the one that Dr. 
Madden mentions went with him to England on a visit, and 
was brought back by him. I suspect that it is, therefore, quite 
as well for Mr. Jackson, that he has since obtained from the 


24 


favor of the authorities, the freedom of the hoy ; otherwise on 
returning home without him, he might have found his own 
freedom in jeopardy. Of his other three Emancipados he will 
no doubt be able to give a satisfactory account ; though if called 
on to do so, he may perhaps regret having had so indiscreet a 
panegyrist as Dr. Madden. 

Mr. Trist’s is a very different case. The person he took, 
having received instruction as a washerwoman, was employed 
in that capacity first in his house, and then in that of an exceed¬ 
ingly kind-hearted American or English widow, well known 
among the foreigners here, for the meritorious manner in which, 
by the hard work of her hands, she has earned an honest livelihood, 
and decently brought up her large family of orphans. To this 
poor woman the washing of Mr. Trist’s household was given, 
and with it the services of the apprentice, without compensa¬ 
tion. After the departure of his family, the negro-woman pre¬ 
ferring the occupation of selling fruit in the street to that of the 
wash-tub, proposed to be allowed to pursue it as the greatest 
favor she could receive. Her wish was acceded to; and her 
wages, fixed by herself \ are brought in weekly ; sometimes in 
full, sometimes in part only. Of whatever amount she brings 
in, she has invariably received the portion requisite for supply¬ 
ing her with cigars and the little luxuries, which are all these 
light-hearted creatures require to fill their measure of content. 
The remainder is laid up as a store for her, which is diminished 
only by what is requisite to clothe her. He derives no benefit 
from her services, he keeps her only from compassion and kind 
feelings. Her liberty, before her apprenticeship is out, he can¬ 
not give her. To return her to the government would be to 
perpetuate her slavery. He therefore leaves her in that situa¬ 
tion which she has herself chosen until the period arrives in 
which she may by law become free. How cruel! how unmad- 
denlike! 

I now come to Dr. Madden’s 8th and last charge against 
Mr. Trist. It must be divided into two parts. The one is, 
that Mr. Trist entertains a deliberate doubt whether the slave 
trade, considered merely in itself, is not a positive benefit to 
its supposed victims. This is, perhaps, the only true state¬ 
ment in the whole of Dr. Madden’s letter. Mr. Trist does 
entertain such a doubt; and a great many other persons, much 
more ultra than Mr. Trist in their objections to the slave 
trade, entertain it too ; — and perhaps most people who know 
the state of Africa do. There are in fact Englishmen and wo¬ 
men, who have visited the West Indies, that consider the state 
of the slaves happier than that of Europeans, much more of 


25 


Africans. Mrs. Carmichael tells us “ that an industrious slave 
can, by extra work, save £30 sterling a year with ease, be¬ 
sides procuring many luxuries and plenty of fine dresses for 
himself, his wife and his children.” Mr. M. C. Lewis, the 
kindest hearted creature in the world, and certainly not favora¬ 
ble to slavery, said, so long ago as 1815, “If asked whether I 
chose to enter life anew as an English laborer or a Jamaica 
negro, I should have no hesitation in preferring the latter; ” 
and a distinguished member of the British House of Lords, at 
a much earlier period declared, that “ the felicity of the ne¬ 
groes of the West Indies was such, that he could not but speak 
of it in terms of rapture, and he should exceedingly rejoice 
if an English day-laborer were but half as happy.” I think 
then that 1 may admit, that Mr. Trist has doubts whether the 
Africans at home or here are happier. This is not one of those 
opinions for which Mr. Madden and his friends will immo¬ 
late him. He, Mr. Trist, has this opinion, and so have I, and 
so have many abolitionists. 

But, to come to the second part of the charge, shall it therefore 
be said, that we are friends of the slave trade ? We abhor the 
slave trade, not because it renders those Africans who are intro¬ 
duced here as slaves less happy than they would be at home, but 
among many other reasons, because we deem it the chief obstacle 
to the civilization of Africa ; because we consider it as increasing 
in this western world the numbers of a race which can never 
amalgamate with ours; and above all, because we detest slavery 
under whatever shape it may come before us. Dr. Madden’s 
tale of Mr. Trist’s predilection for the slave trade is altogether 
feigned, still more so the story of his indiscriminate fury and 
intolerant partizanship in its favor; of which not one word ap¬ 
pears even in his letter of two hundred and seventy-six pages, 
the length of which so amuses our author. But the most ab¬ 
surd of all the Doctor’s imaginings is that, in which he figures 
to himself the traffic as a lascivious female, and speaks of her 
in such terms, that we might suppose him seized with a fit of 
amatory ardor, as were not exactly to be expected from a scrip¬ 
ture-quoting gentleman, had we not the assurance of no mean 
authority that “ the devil quoted scripture like other learned 
clerks.” 

I have now done with Dr. Madden’s complaints, and I will 
begin with my own. I complain then, sir, ■— 

First. That merchants of respectable standing in Baltimore, 
and likewise in other ports, having received orders for building 
vessels for slave traders, have had such vessels registered in 
4 


26 


their own name ; thus giving to those vessels a fraudulent char¬ 
acter— and in a measure participating in the slave trade. 

This happened, I suspect, in the case of the Venus con¬ 
structed expressly for Mr. Mazorra : the Centipede and Wasp, 
built for Mr. Martinez or Mr. Terran ; and many other clip¬ 
pers, bona fide the property of Spanish merchants at the time 
of their leaving Baltimore, though when they arrived here still 
retaining the ostensible ownership of the seller. 

I complain, secondly, of the merchants in Baltimore build¬ 
ing vessels suitable for no other purpose but the slave trade, 
and sending them out here for sale, knowing the purpose to 
which they would be applied. Among many such cases I 
think I may safely name the Hound, the Jack Wilding, the 
William Bayard, the Elvina, the Lark, the Nymph, the Asp, 
the Mary Cushing, and the Mary Ann Casard. 

I complain, thirdly, of their selling such vessels deliverable 
on the coast of Africa, part of the purchase money being 
payable only after such a delivery ; a plan adopted solely for 
the security of the slave trade against British interference. 
Under this head I need only name the Catherine. 

I complain, fourthly, that American shipmasters, who have 
scruples about going themselves to the coast of Africa, never¬ 
theless come here, dispose of their vessels to slave traders, put 
in their own mates as masters and ostensible owners, and thus 
fraudulently preserve to the craft the use of the American flag. 
Such happened, among other instances, in the case of the 
Elvina. 

I complain, fifthly, that these same mates, made masters, 
not only take out their vessels to the coast, but after the flag is 
changed, return with them as ostensible passengers, but really 
navigate the ship when laden with slaves. I again cite the 
case of the Elvina, and 

Lastly, I complain of American merchants here selling ves¬ 
sels in the way mentioned under the second and third of these 
heads : thus, conniving at and participating in the slave trade ; 
and I mention as vessels thus disposed of, the Rebecca, cleared 
for Gallinas in January, 1S39, and the Wyoming, cleared for 
Africa in March of the same year; both consigned to Mr. Fer¬ 
dinand Clark, and sold by him , just at the period when he 
and Dr. Madden were plotting Mr! Trist’s downfall in the way 
mentioned in the note 4. 

These are the complaints I would bring before the public. 

I know not how the evils are to be remedied, but I trust in part 
to the wisdom of Congress, acting on the communications and 
suggestions of Mr. Trist, and in part, sir, to you, who in that 


27 


heart-stirring language, so peculiarly at your command, must 
enforce on our countrymen, the iniquity of aiding and abetting 
the cruel traffic, and engage them, if not from motives of jus¬ 
tice and humanity, at least for the honor of the nation, the first 
to abolish the slave trade, to sacrifice their corrupt gains on the 
altar of patriotism. 

But I have been led too far. I have written too much at 
length. Many will not wade through my pages; and for 
these I must recapitulate their contents. 

1 did not begin with a division of my subject, I will end with 
it. I have treated it under four heads. In the first, I have 
shown that Dr. Madden’s testimony was such, that it ought to 
be received with suspicion. In the second, that his assump¬ 
tions, twelve in number, were unfounded. In the third, that 
his charges against Mr. Trist, and through him, against our 
country and government, were equally so j and in the fourth, 
having admitted that certain American citizens have been, and 
are engaged, to a limited degree in the slave trade, without 
either the government or the Consul, under the existing state of 
the laws being able to prevent it, I have expressed a hope, that 
such changes will be made in these laws as were recommended 
by the President recently, and the Consul at a more remote 
period, with a view to obviate the evil as far as laws can do it. 
And lastly, I have invited you to make such an appeal to the 
the community as may engage their sympathies in the cause 
of humanity and their country. 

A Calm Observer. 






APPENDIX. 


NOTE I. 

I have no knowledge of Arabic; but one of my friends who has, assures 
me, that Dr. Madden, in his 44 Travels in the East,” has been guilty of 
errors, which prove his entire ignorance of that language. 44 Dr. Madden,” 
he observes, “ uses the expressions 4 Allah wakbar ,’ (vol. i. p. 4, and vol. 
ii. p. 275,) 4 Allah wachbar,’ (vol. ii. p. 19,) which he translates «there was 
but one God,’ ‘ there is only one God.’ He no doubt means ‘Allahou akba- 
ron ,’ or 4 Allah akbar,’ 1 God is the greatest;’ a common Arabic exclama¬ 
tion. And again Dr. Madden says, — * Mashalla,’ 4 How wonderful is God,’ 
(vol. i. p. 17) — * Mashallah ,’ 4 God is great,’ (vol. i. p. 243) — 4 Mashalla’ 
‘ How very fine,’ (vol. ii. p. 246,) no doubt meaning 4 ma sha Allah,’ what¬ 
ever God pleases.’ And again, ‘Allah kharim,’ (vol. i. p. 43, vol. i. p. 225,) 
* God is great;’ ‘Allah karim’ (vol. ii. p. 275,) e God is most merciful 
which should be ‘Allah Karim,’ 1 God is generous.’ Once more, * Elb 
sukhne kiter,’ (vol. i. p. 293,) meant for 4 kelb sukhun kathiran,’ and 
‘ Mafish dowa,’ (vol. i. p. 120,) really ‘ ma fithsheyi dawa.’ 

“ His quotations,” my friend adds, 44 are few, but all erroneous, and show 
him to be as great a quack in learning, as he is in medicine.” 44 Will you 
believe it,” he concludes, “this famous ‘ Hakkim,’ is the M. D. of a Ger¬ 
man university, which he never saw, and the thesis for which his degree 
was conferred, is his celebrated treatise on £ The Infirmities of Genius ’ ?! !! 
What humbug.” 


NOTE II. - 

Extracts from the London Quarterly Review of Oct. 1833. 

The Infirmities of Genius, illustrated by referring the Anomalies of the 
Literary Character to the Habits and Constitutional Peculiarities of 
Men of Genius. By R. R. Madden, Esq., Author of 44 Travels in Tur¬ 
key.’ 2 vols. London. 1833. 

Our readers will recollect that, on our examination of Mr. Madden’s 
“ Travels in Turkey,” we saw reason to suspect that he was superficial, 
inaccurate, and presumptuous — that on his assertions a very qualified reli¬ 
ance should be placed, and on his inferences — none. This work justifies 
all those opinions. * * * In general learning he seems to be below 

what is called a smatterer, and the turn of his mind is evidently neither 
accurate in observation, precise in distinction, sagacious in analysis, nor com¬ 
prehensive in synthetical combination. We suspect that he is little versed 
in medical, and still less in moral, philosophy; and though his pages are 
illustrated with great names and copious quotations, he gives us the impres¬ 
sion of knowing of the men and the books he mentions little more than the 
name. 

* * * * * * * 




30 


We may here observe, also, that the title-page affords us a curious speci¬ 
men of the author’s scholarship: his motto is, 44 Qui ratione corporis non 
habent, sed cogwnt mortalem immortali, terrestrem aether® equalem prestare 
industriam;’ and for this sentence he refers us to Plutarch de Sanitate 
tuenda. We should lay no stress on the mere press-errors of this and almost 
every other classical quotafion in the book, if they were not so general that 
it is impossible they can be merely accidental; but does Mr. Madden sup¬ 
pose that Plutarch is a Latin author ? and if not, why does he give us this 
barbarous mutilation of Xylander’s very indifferent translation of Plutarch’s 
’Yyitiva IIaQayytlf.iaTa ? While we are on the subject of quotations, we may 
as well dispose at once of Mr. Madden’s pretensions to classical learning, on 
which, from his frequent and ambitious display of it, we presume he sets 
great value, and of which, therefore, he would not forgive us if we did not 
take some little notice. Plutarch, we have seen, appears in the new charac¬ 
ter of a writer of very bad Latin. Sophocles, who has hitherto passed for a 
Greek tragedian, was it seems of the same school : — 

44 Sophocles has lauded the beatitude of ignorance. 4 Nihil scire vita 
jucundissima. , ” — vol. i. p. 37. 

The distribution of the following lines leads us to suppose, that Mr. Mad¬ 
den fancies that some of the poetical works of Tacitus have been preserved, 
though we doubt whether Mr. Madden himself could ascertain the metre : — 

“ In large cities, at least, literature occupies the ground which politics and 
scandal keep possession of in small ones; in the time of Tacitus the evil was 
common to the communities of both: — 

4 Yitium parvis magnisque civitatibus commune 
Ignoranthm et invidiam.”’ — vol. i. p. 23. 

Every schoolboy knows the passage in the introduction of the Life of Agri¬ 
cola, which, by misunderstanding and misprinting, our 44 learned Theban ” 
has produced in this strange form. But if he exhibits Tacitus in verse, he 
balances the account by quoting 44 an excellent old author,” who turns 
Horace into prose : — 

44 Like those poets who will throw you off a hundred verses, 4 stantes in 
pede uno ,’ as Horace has it” —(vol. i. p. 70) —rather, we should have 
said, as Horace has it not. 

“ Oyid and Horace,” he says, 44 afford specimens of self-complacency, 
4 exegi monumentum aer i perennius.’ — ‘Jamque opus exegi quod nec 
Jovis ira,’ ” &c. —vol. ii. p, 146. 

So — referendo singula singulis — Ovid may be supposed to be the author 
of the former boast, and Horace of the latter. The following passage is of a 
higher flight both of English eloquence and classical Latinity. He denoun¬ 
ces (alluding to the posthumous publication of some of Lord Byron’s satirical 
jeux d’esprit,) 44 the deep, deliberate malignity of the literary jackal that 
steals away the provender of the mangled 4 disjectce membri humanitatis * 
for the 4 omni vorantia et homicida guld ’ of the savage community of his 
own species.” — vol. i. p. 187. 

We say nothing of the new reading of membri for membra, or of omni 
for we suppose omnia, but we wish that Dr. Madden had named the author 
to whom we are indebted for the latter quotation, which enriches the Latin 
language with the two adjectives which we do not recollect to have met 
elsewhere, vorantius, vorantia, vorantium, and homicidns, homicida , 
homicidum! and, lest this choice scrap of erudition should be mistaken for 
the error ol the printer, Mr. Madden carefully repeats the quotation 44 omni 
vorantia gida ” in another place — vol. i. p. 271. 

fV Gh ^^ un< ^ ers as these, we are obliged to conclude, that although 
Mr. Madden quotes, or we should rather say misquotes, very ostentatiously, 
Sophocles, Plato, Xenophon, Hippocrates, Plautus, Horace, Ovid, Tacitus, 
Martial, St. Augustine, Ficinus, Plembius (Plempius), and the 44 Sieur 
Xilander, (Xylander) he knows nothing of them beyond their names (and 
not always their names), and some extracts which he has picked up in other 
writers, and which, without thoroughly understanding, he has transferred, 
lor the most part m a maimed and corrupted shape, into his own pages. 


31 


His chief, if not only source, is old Burton, who being generally so obliging 
as to give translations of what he quotes, is an invaluable repertorium to one 
who would be a scholar, with ££ small Latin and no Greek.” Him, Mr. 
Madden plunders as profusely, though not quite so aptly as did Squire 
Shandy, and his friend Dr. Slop. We select two or three instances out of 
fifty: — 

“ Surely,” says Ficinus, “scholars are the most foolish men in the world 
— other men look to their tools,” &c. — vol. i. p. 3.9. 

This translation from Ficinus is taken without acknowledgment from Bur¬ 
ton, vol. i. p. 187, 8vo. ed. 1804. 

{£ iEneas Sylvius says he knew many scholars in his time, excellent, well- 
learned men, but so rude,” &c. — vol. i. p. 163. 

This passage from .Eneas Sylvius is to be found in Burton, vol. i. p. 190. 

“ Those £ labores hilares venandi,’ as Camden terms the field-sports of 
Staffordshire .”— vol. ii. p. 247. 

One wonders why this phrase should be more especially applied to field- 
sports in Staffordshire , than in Derbyshire or Devonshire ; but what Cam¬ 
den says is, that the gentry in the neighborhood of Needwood forest (which 
happens to be in Staffordshire) pursued there the hilares venandi labores. 
Mr. Madden, we dare say, never saw Camden, but he found the quotation 
itself in the text of Burton, vol. i. p. 404, and in the marginal reference, 
££ Camden, in Staffordshire ,” and so, ££ from text and margent,” compounded 
his own exhibition of learning. 

Again — when he wishes to describe a pleasant walk, he talks with great 
pomp of ££ Deambulatio per amoena loca.” vol. ii. p. 245. This quotation he 
finds also in Burton, vol. i. p. 407. 

And to conclude this chapter, Burton, having occasion to quote the cele¬ 
brated passage in the 6th iEneid — 

££ Pallentesque habitant morbi,” &c. 

chose to alter some words to suit the subject in hand; and behold, Mr. Mad¬ 
den, thinking proper to use the same quotation (Burton having kindly sup¬ 
plied him with a translation,) copies, still without notice or acknowledgment. 
Burton’s cento instead of Virgil’s original! In short, we really have never 
seen so flagrant a case of plagiarism, presumption, and ignorance, as Mr. 
Madden’s pretence to classical learning. 

****** 

The main body of the work proceeds in a style of vague, inconsistent, and 
often contradictory trivialities, which we sometimes do not comprehend — 
often cannot reconcile with the preceding or following sentences — and never 
can reduce into any general and satisfactory course of statement or reasoning. 

It is in his preliminary chapter that we naturally seek the object of his 
work. We look, and see nothing but detached common-places, which, with¬ 
out acumen or consideration, are laid down as axioms, on which it seems he 
intended to erect a superstructure, but which, we find in the progress of the 
work, are quite incapable of carrying even their own weight. * * * 
Ml Mr. Madden’s examples happen, ridiculously enough, to contradict, in 
a very striking manner, the assertion by which he introduces them. 

But as he proceeds, he plunges into still deeper inconsistency. He is 
very severe on the biographers of literary men: — 

“We find that its ashes are hardly cold, before its frailties are raked up 
from the tomb and baited at the ring of biography, till the public taste is 
satiated with the sport.’ — vol. i. pp. 4, 5. 

“ But when biography is made the vehicle, not only of private scandal but 
of that minor malignity of truth, which holds, as it were, a magnifying mir¬ 
ror to every naked imperfection of humanity, which possibly had never been 
discovered had no friendship been violated, no confidence been abused, and 
no errors exaggerated by the medium through which they have been viewed, 
it ceases to be a legitimate inquiry into private character or public conduct, 
and no infamy is comparable to that of magnifying the faults, or libelling the 
fame of the illustrious dead.” * * * “In a word, that species of 


» 


32 


biography which is written for contemporaries, and not for posterity, is worse 
than worthless. It would be well for the memory of many recent authors if 
their injudicious friends had made a simple obituary serve the purpose of a 
history.” — pp. 10, 11. 

Now would any one believe from this indignant exordium that three- 
fourths of Mr. Madden’s own book consist of “ the rakings up of all the frail¬ 
ties,” of all “ the private scandal,” of all <£ the magnifying of imperfections ” 
with which Pope, Johnson, Burns, Cowper, and Byron have been “ baited 
in the ring of biography,” and that Mr. Madden has himself supplied as 
many of such details concerning Sir Walter Scott as he could collect, even 
to the violation (in so recent a case) of all feeling and decency, by copying 
loose newspaper tattle about the post mortem appearances of his brain!! In 
short, Mr. Madden’s philosophical treatise is little else than a repetition and 
amplification of the very small and dirty gossip which he so severely cen¬ 
sures, and which he applies to the most offensive and uncharitable pur¬ 
poses. 

***** * 

Of Pope, Mr. Madden begins by undertaking a defence against the obser¬ 
vations of Mr. Bowles, whom he censures very severely for his alleged de¬ 
preciation of the bard’s moral and poetical character ; and then he proceeds 
with the most astonishing thoughtlessness (another word would suit the case 
better—but we refrain) to collect from every scattered expression and every 
loose observation of all Pope’s biographers, a combination of bad qualities of 
which Mr. Bowles’s picture gives but a very faint idea. * * * But 

poor Mr. Madden is still more bewildered by Johnson than by Pope. * * * 

There is hardly an instance amongst his innumerable larcenies from Bos. 
well, in which Mr. Madden does not in this manner misquote and misap¬ 
ply— and indeed these alterations of the authors he quotes, and these dis¬ 
tortions of their meanings, are almost the only exertion of his own mind 
which we can discover in the whole work. And, after all, what is the ob¬ 
ject of the threescore pages, in which Mr. Madden has caricatured Dr. 
Johnson ? why, to prove that he was hypochondriac — a fact which Boswell 
distinctly states in the very first pages of his work — adding, what we wish 
Mr. Madden had remembered :— “ Let not little men triumph upon know¬ 
ing that Dr. Johnson was an Hypochondriac ”! Croker’s Boswell, vol. 
i. p. 36. So that instead of quoting and misquoting so many passages, which 
really prove nothing, he might have adduced the clear admission of the 
fact. Aye, but then how should he have filled up the threescore pages of 
his catchpenny ? 

** ****** 

After such examples of extravagant absurdity, we shall decline pursuing 
Mr. Madden through his long and desultory account of the infirmities of 
Cowper and Byron, which he has, with no amiable industry, selected from 
their various biographers, adding nothing of his own but the coarseness of 
his expression, and the confusion and contradiction of his deductions. But 
as to Sir Walter Scott, so long our friend and fellow-laborer, we must say a 
few reluctant words: — We were at first at a loss to know how he was to be 
made an example of the infirmities of genius , and for what purpose Mr. 
Madden could have introduced him. We are now satisfied that we have 
discovered his reason—and, for him, a very good reason too — to help to sell 
his book! So blameless a character — a death so recent — the undried tears 
of children — the still bleeding sorrow of friends — might have appeared to 
most men sufficient reasons for excluding Sir Walter Scott from so early and 
so cruel an examination — even if he had legitimately fallen within the gen¬ 
eral scope of the work; but Mr. Madden seems to have felt no such com¬ 
punctious visitings of nature — at least they vanished before the spirit of 
book-making; and the recent death, the grief of children and friends, and 
the regrets of the world at large, have no doubt appeared to the worthy au¬ 
thor fortunate and opportune circumstances, well-fitted to extend— the sale 
of his work /***** 

We will follow Mr. Madden no further in personal details. Indeed, we 


33 


doubt whether we have not already gone too far, and whether it was neces¬ 
sary to have said more than that the anecdotes which he has compiled of the 
several illustrious individuals introduced in these impudent chapters, are in 
themselves for the most part trivial, erroneous, a,nd uncharitable; and, as 
regards Mr. Madden, they are generally misquoted, misstated , misappre¬ 
hended, and misapplied!!! 


NOTE III. (omitted). 


NOTE' IV. 

In the beginning of December, 1838, there arrived here from Baltimore, 
the fast sailing schooner Rebecca, F. Neil, master, to the consignment of 
Ferdinand Clark, on whose authority she was stated in the weekly report of 
the 12th of January, 1839, published in this city, as “ sold.” But no sale 
took place at the American Consulate. There the master only was changed, 
one George Watson being substituted for F. Neil; and on the 21st of Janu¬ 
ary, 1839, she cleared for Gallinas, the famous slave market near Sierra 
Leone. To the consignment of the same Clark, a person well known in 
Boston, there arrived on the 2d January, 1839, the fast sailing brig Wyoming, 
N. Christopher, master. This vessel began to load for New Orleans. She 
took in goods for that place; but Clark finding a buyer for her, these goods 
were transferred to another vessel, a new master, one John C. Edwards, was 
appointed, and about the 8th of March, 1839, off she too went for Africa, 
without any sale taking place at the Consulate. This is the vessel afterwards 
captured and sent to New York by H. B. M. brig Euzzard. 

Whilst these things were going on, which could not be unknown to Dr. 
Madden, and indeed up to the time of his departure, in the beginning of Oc¬ 
tober, 1839, he was acting in other matters in concert with Clark, as may be 
inferred from the following letter, extracted from the New York Journal of 
Commerce of the 21st November, 1839. 

DR. MADDEN AND THE AMERICAN PRISONERS AT HAVANA. 

Dr. R. R. Madden, an English gentlemen, who, we believe, is connected 
with the Mixed Commission at Havana, and who recently arrived here from 
that city, deserves the thanks of our countrymen for the active interest he 
took in behalf of several seamen of the American ship William Engs, now 
confined as criminals in the Cabanas prison at Havana. The annexed letter 
from Dr. Madden, we find in the New Orleans American: 

Havana, 6th Sept . 1839. 

Dear Sir, — In reply to your letter of this morning’s date, respecting the 
steps taken by me to procure the liberation and otherwise assist the men of 
the William Engs, I comply with your request, though unwilling to have to 
speak of any trifling efforts of mine in their behalf. 

In the month of February last, I heard of eight or nine men, speaking our 
language, and, consequently, either English or Americans, being in the Ca¬ 
banas, worked in chains with the other felons in that place. I went the fol¬ 
lowing day to ascertain the truth of this account, accompanied by Mr. Nor¬ 
man. I found the men alluded to breaking stones in the broiling sun about 
noonday. — I think this party consisted of nine men; six of these told me 
they were Englishmen, one a Swede, and two were Americans. They all 
said, however, they had come here in American vessels as sailors. They 
were all remarkably well-behaved, decent looking men. They were in 
rags, and, with one or two exceptions, without shoes, the want of which 
they complained of greatly ; — they all looked sickly and sorrowful enough ; 
and the hardships they were undergoing, and the despair of ever getting out 
of the Cabanas, were sufficient to make them so. I then gave them what 
assistance I could afford, and promised not to lose sight of them. 

They said they had nothing to expect from any other quarter ; they had 
received some time before three or four pair of shoes from the American 

5 




34 


Consul, but they had been worn out long ago. They had been in the Ca¬ 
banas six months, and were condemned to different terms of imprisonment, 
and hard labor of two, four, and six years. It was quite evident to me as a 
medical man, from their looks and evident exhaustion, not one of the party 
would reach the end of the two, four and six years’ labor, under the burning 
sun of Cuba ; some of them, indeed, would not live the winter out. I de¬ 
termined to do all in my power to get them out, whether they were Eng¬ 
lishmen or Americans; they were strangers, and were in trouble, and as far 
as I could learn, there was no one to get them out of it; and this was quite 
claim enough for any person of common feeling, who might have seen them 
in the situation I did. At that time there were two British vessels of the 
line here. I immediately waited upon Capt. Henderson, of the Edinburgh, 
the senior captain, and begged him to apply for their liberation. He promised 
me, after stating some difficulties, to do so. However, in a couple of days, 
I found Capt. Henderson had been making inquiries respecting these men of 
the William Engs, and had got a very bad account of them. I know not 
from whom. Moreover, he was informed, they were by no means in so bad 
a state as I had represented — that they had received clothing from the 
American Consul. It vexed me a good deal to find what trouble had been 
taken to prepossess Capt. Henderson against these poor men. However, I 
did not leave him till I prevailed on him to present a memorial to the Cap¬ 
tain-General, in their behalf; that is to say, of those who were Englishmen, 
for there would have been an impropriety in applying for the others formally. 
However, in his letter to the Captain-General, I begged of him to state to 
the Captain-General that two men who were not English — the Swede and 
the American, Isaac Clark, though not named in the memorial, were of the 
same party of the William Engs, and that it would be a hardship if the others 
were liberated and they were left. I then made out a memorial for them 
and sent it to Capt. Henderson. The only apprehension he now had was on 
account of the bad character he got of these men. In fact, I feared his dis¬ 
inclination to taking them on board on this account, would prevent the me¬ 
morial being sent. 

I therefore wrote to him on the 5th of March in these terms — “ If you 
think the service will not allow you to take these men on board your vessel, 
should they be liberated, I will undertake to send them to America; and, to 
remove any apprehension of the Captain-General, as to their being at large 
before an opportunity offers to remove them, I will answer for their being 
closely kept till a vessel is found to send them away. Still, however, I 
greatly hope there may be no impediment to their being allowed to enter the 
service on their liberation. I am quite certain that an application from you to 
the Captain-General, would be considered as a matter that his Excellency 
would be pleased to oblige you in acceding to. These poor people begged 
me hard to plead for them with you, and how can I plead for them better 
than by putting their memorial into your hands ? ” The memorial was kindly 
sent, with a very strong letter, by Capt. Henderson, to the Captain-General, 
and the result was the abridgment of the term of confinement — one third 
of the time they were sentenced to was taken off. This was not doing a 
great deal — it was something, however, and I resolved in a short timeto 
make another similar application. 

The thing that seemed to me now to be done was, by enabling these men 
to procure some better diet than the prison allowance, and also better cloth¬ 
ing to sustain life, and give them a better chance, at all events, of surviving 
through the summer. What my means allowed me to do, I did from time to 
time. I sent clothing for all, so far as shirts, shoes, trowsers, &c., and when 
I round the expense press a little too much on me, I raised a small sub¬ 
scription of about an ounce ($17) a month, for whatever term they might 
remain in confinement. I paid them the first month’s subscription, and be- 
tore the next came due, they were released by the exertions, I believe, 
chiefly of yourself. Whatever assistance they got from me, I beg distinctly 
to tell you, whether in clothes or money, by my written directions, was 
shared amongst all, English and Americans alike, as you will find by the two 
documents I send you, namely, the receipt for the clothes signed by Broad- 
loot, and by a copy of my note to him. 


35 


I send these because I heard from you that Clark had stated Broadfoot 
had not shared the things by my directions, and farther in proof, such not be* 
mg the case, I send you Broadfoot’s letter to me respecting the money and 
clothing in question, and that which Capt. Babbit raised for them. I think it 
would nave been detestable to have made any difference in such a case. 
What did it matter to me where these men were born ? I knew where they 
would have died, as I thought, if I had not interfered for them. 

Yours, very truly, 

R. R. Madden. 

To Ferdinand Clark, Esq. Havana. 

How came it about, now, that so immaculate a person as Dr. Madden 
should be on terms of “ Dear Sirring” a man like Clark, just after the latter 
had been connected with the business of the Wyoming and Rebecca ? Was 
it that the all-absorbing spirit of benevolence, excited by the cruel situation 
of the poor sailors of the William Engs, closed the Doctor’s mental vision to 
the faults of his coadjutor in this labor of love ? Or was not theirs rather the 
sympathy of evil doers, bent on making; a victim of one whom they united 
in hating ? 

Fortunately there are circumstances connected with the affair that decide 
these questions. The seamen belonging to the William Engs were persons 
condemned to imprisonment and labor under the sentence of a Spanish court, 
for an outrageous mutiny on board of their vessel in the harbor of Havana. 
These people managed, probably because one of them was called Clark, to 
enlist in their favor the feelings of Mr. Ferdinand; who, it seems, is pecu¬ 
liarly well affected towards all who bear his name. He, Clark, therefore re¬ 
solved to pet these scoundrels, and finding that Mr. Trist (though from motives 
of compassion, not justice, exerting himself individually in their behalf,) 
would not act with him on the occasion, he united all those who were ill-dis¬ 
posed towards Mr. Trist, and got up a clamor against that gentleman in 
which he was joined by Dr. Madden, by a certain Dr. Bumstead, by Colonel 
Throop, an engraver, one Mr. Selden, a commander Babbit, well known in 
the American navy, and a few others of the same stamp. 

At the very time that these mutineers were visited by Dr. Madden, there 
were likewise confined in the same prison several sailors belonging to the 
American schooner Henry Clay, men arrested for merely having pointed 
knives, a prohibited weapon, upon their persons; and who, for this infringe¬ 
ment of the laws, the result of ignorance, were condemned to hard labor for 
six years. Of these poor fellows no one was called Clark, and they had a 
still greater fault, that of Mr. Trist’s having, with his unusual humanity,— 
not that of the lips,— exerted himself to procure their liberation. 

As the Henry Clay’s men were confined and worked in company with 
the men of the William Engs, Dr. Madden had not the impudence to refuse 
them a part of the relief which he was commissioned to afford. 

But, will it be believed ? no sooner were those of the William Engs dis¬ 
charged from prison, than the Henry Clay’s men were utterly deserted by 
the Doctor and his co-philanthopists ! For them, poor fellows, there was no 
more Madden, no more Clark, no more visiting, no more wining, no more 
commiseration, no more old clothes. “ What did it matter to him where 
these men were born ? “ He knew where they would die,” and yet he for¬ 

sook them without compunction! They were innocent, but the purposes for 
which they had become proteges of this Havana Howard had been fully 
served : the materials were secured for his tale of piteous abandonment and 
bounteous philanthropy ; the “ sickly and sorrowful ” prisoners had been 
made all the use of against Mr. Trist that they could be: so let those of the 
proteges whose “ term of imprisonment and hard labor ” was the longest, 
who were in for “ six years,” perish ! They had belonged, not to the ship 
William Engs, but to the schooner Henry Clay; their case afforded no pre¬ 
text for representing the Consul as the author of their sufferings; so let the 
dogs die ! 

This fact speaks volumes. But there are many others of interest, in and 
connected with Dr. Madden’s letter. Why was it not written till Septem¬ 
ber, when the circumstances it referred to took place in February ? Be- 


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36 

cause it was not till September, that Dr. Madden had an idea of visiting the 
United States, where it was sent and published as an avant-courier of this 
“ distinguished traveller,” who left us for Boston in the following month ; a 
bait thrown out to catch those who were clamoring against Mr. Trist,— a 
precursor of his c< poem ” on a “ Slave-Trader,” long ago written here, and 
only by an afterthought dedicated to our Consul, in terms as vulgar as they 
are false,— and an introduction to that pamphlet to which the present is a 
reply. But to proceed: Let us come to “ the broiling sun about noonday.” 
This is quite theatrical; but it happens that the convicts here never work at 
noon-day; and moreover, that the noon-day sun in February, of which time 
of the year the Doctor is speaking, is not so oppressive, that people accus¬ 
tomed even to temperate climates languish under it. But some of these peo¬ 
ple, he, “ as a medical man,” knew, would not, “ under the burning sun of 
Cuba” live the winter out. How curious that the Henry Clay’s men, the 
only three of the party described by Dr. Madden, who have remained in 
confinement, have lived, not only the “ winter out,” but (without ever hav¬ 
ing seen or heard of Dr. Madden since the discharge of the William Engs’s 
men, early in May,) the summer and fall too, of a remarkably sickly year; 
and were, notwithstanding, all except one, subject to fever and ague before 
his imprisonment, recently found in excellent health by officers of our navy, 
expressly sent by Commodore Shubrick to examine into their condition. 

Nor is the interesting story of Captain Henderson worthy of regard. That 
officer was unwillingly led into an affair in which he had no right to inter¬ 
fere, namely, in favor of American seamen, and procured nothing for them, 
except what the Captain-General had long before offered Mr. Trist. “ The 
abridgment of their term of confinement,” which the latter had not ac¬ 
cepted, because he feared that by receiving such an instalment, he might 
lose the chance of obtaining what has since been obtained, (not as Dr. Mad¬ 
den says, by Mr. Clark’s interference, for Mr. Clark has no influence any 
where) their complete liberation. 

Dr. Madden’s letter is in many other points open to criticism, not the most 
flattering either to his good sense or morality ; but I should be tiring my 
readers, were I to pursue these remarks. I drop them. To have placed 
Dr. Madden in juxtaposition with Ferdinand Clark is to have given him a 
sufficiently enviable situation. Two such faces under one hood ! 

I cannot however conclude without one observation, foreign perhaps to the 
purpose of the present note, but such as a sense of justice draws from me ; 
namely, that all the excitement against Mr. Trist has been got up by some 
worthless shipmasters who were offended with him for pretending that sea¬ 
men also had civil rights, — by others of a more respectable kind, drawn in 
thoughtlessly, many of whom now regret their error,—by a few American 
visiters who, forgetting Mr. Trist’s multifarious occupations, have been hurt 
at his not paying them what they considered proper attentions, — by men at 
home to whom he is obnoxious in politics, — by one, at least, himself a can¬ 
didate for the consulate, — by a clique of our citizens established here, who 
would hardly deem it prudent to visit their own country, — and by, last not 
least, a British agent, Dr. Madden; whilst on the other hand we have, as 
supporters of Mr. Trist, all the highly, respectable packet captains in this 
trade, and other shipmasters of the same standing who have an opportunity 
of knowing him, — we have the officers of our navy, all except Captain Bab¬ 
bit and his followers, who were drawn into the net of Clark and Co., — we 
have the very best of our fellow-countrymen, temporary residents among us ; 
I will name but one, a host in himself, the pious and excellent Dr. Tucker- 
man; we have our oldest residents in the island; and we have, to con¬ 
clude our budget, all the citizens of the United States long established as 
merchants of eminence in this city, Mr. Morland, Mr. Knight and Mr Spald¬ 
ing, all, all on the side of Mr. Trist! I have done. 



